John Woodcock (cricket writer)

John Charles Woodcock OBE (born 7 August 1926) is an English cricket writer and journalist.

He was born at Longparish, Hampshire, where he still lives, and was dubbed "the Sage of Longparish" by Alan Gibson. He was a contributor to the Longparish Village Handbook.[1]

Woodcock attended Trinity College, Oxford, and won hockey Blues in 1946 and 1947. He went on the England tour of Australia in 1950-51 as a newsreel cameraman for the BBC. He subsequently worked for the Manchester Guardian for a couple of years.

He was cricket correspondent of The Times from 1954 to 1988 and editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack for six editions from 1981 until 1986. He has attended more than 400 Tests.[2][3]

He was President of the Cricket Writers' Club from 1986 to 2004, having been chairman in 1966.[4]

Unlike other notable cricket journalists such as John Arlott and E.W. Swanton, little of his writing is available in book form. He did, however, write The Times One Hundred Greatest Cricketers, Macmillan, 1998, ISBN 0-333-73641-9.

At the 2018 Sports Book Awards evening he received a special award for Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing. Henry Blofeld said at the event, "John Woodcock is the most thorough watcher of a day’s cricket I've ever known."[5]